Spurs vs. Knicks truly a tale of two teams

SAN ANTONIO — You can count the number of times Spurs owner Peter Holt, discrete almost to the point of reclusive, will speak publicly in a given season on one hand.

His counterpart with the Knicks, James Dolan, is such an inveterate — and some would say clueless — micro-manager that he reportedly banned the dance team in reaction to yet another disappointing start.

And that’s only scraping the surface of the differences between the two franchises, who will meet Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

* The Spurs have won 30 playoff series, while the Knicks have won seven.

* The Spurs have had one head coach, Gregg Popovich. The Knicks have had eight.

* The Spurs have had one brain trust, Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford. The Knicks have had six.

* The Spurs have won four championships — beating N.Y. for one — compared to none for the Knicks.

* The Spurs have had 16 straight winning seasons. The Knicks have reached 50 victories just twice.

By now, you get the point. The Spurs are perennial contenders, having rebuilt on the fly around Duncan multiple times, while the Knicks have been in a near-constant state of chaos.

As Popovich often notes, luck has played a huge part in the Spurs’ success.

Probably six can’t-miss franchise bigs have been available over the past 30 years, and they were fortunate enough to win the rights to draft two of them. That they were in those positions to begin with is even more improbable considering they’ve missed the playoffs only four times since moving to San Antonio in 1973.

And more, still: Duncan and David Robinson actually preferred playing in a small market. Compare that to Orlando, which lost both Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard in free agency.

But the Spurs have also done their part by maximizing that luck with discipline and shrewd, outside-the-box thinking. Drafting Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Trading for Kawhi Leonard. Picking Danny Green off the scrap heap.

The Knicks, in contrast, have generally been a mess, sabotaged by what Araton describes as their “style-over-substance ethos.” Perhaps that’s inevitable in the white-hot glare of New York City, where patience is the rarest of commodities.

But no matter what circumstances under which a franchise operates, the respective teams that will play today at the world’s most famous arena show there’s no substitute for hand-off ownership, sound management and avoiding the cutting of corners at all costs.